Week 7 Review

Venue

Another week gone by and still no venue. There was some progress though. I guess. I finally got someone on the phone for one of the venues I am looking at and they gave me a general estimate of the cost. What they gave me seems to be lower than I was expecting which is great (we will see if that holds true when they give me the final numbers). They also said they would be getting me those final numbers next week. Always next week. The other venue I have in my final two has been radio silent so… I guess unless they get me some more information by next week I will have to drop them and go with the first place. Ideally I would like to have actual dates and an agreement signed next week so I can start talking to sponsors.

Information Interviews

I interviewed Jason Swett, (former) organizer of Sin City Ruby this week. He is the first organizer that I have interviewed where I have actually been to the conference I am asking them questions about. That made it even more interesting for me because I get to compare my experience as an attendee with his experience as an organizer. Unfortunately, my internet connection was acting up during the interview and so a lot of my side of the conversation got lost. Luckily, Jason is the one dropping the knowledge and his connection was fine so the video should still be useful to people but I feel bad that it was probably frustrating for him to understand the questions and continue the interview.

I have one more interview scheduled this coming week and then I think I will take a break for a couple weeks. I will be preparing for Rails Conf and then travelling for a wedding the week after so it will be a bit hard to schedule.

Marketing, Etc

My girlfriend designed some stickers that I can put out at RailsConf. I am pretty excited about that. It will be a big step to actually have dates and be telling people about the conference. It will definitely feel more real.